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A miniseries is distinguished from an ongoing television series; the latter do not usually have a predetermined number of episodes and may continue for several years. Before the term was coined in the USA in the early 1970s, the ongoing episodic form was always called a "serial", just as a novel appearing in episodes in successive editions of magazines or newspapers is called a serial. In Britain, miniseries are often still referred to as serials.

Several commentators have offered more precise definitions of the term. In Halliwell's Television Companion, Leslie Halliwell and Philip Purser argue that miniseries tend to "appear in four to six episodes of various lengths",[1][2] while Stuart Cunningham in Textual Innovation in the Australian Historical Mini-series defines a miniseries as, "a limited run program of more than two and less than the 13-part season or half season block associated with serial or series programming."[1][3] Still, with the proliferation of the format in the 1980s and 90s, television films broadcast over even two or three nights were commonly referred to as miniseries.[4][5]

Both soap operas and primetime series cannot afford to allow their leading characters to develop, since the shows are made with the intention of running indefinitely. In a miniseries on the other hand, there is a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end (as in a conventional play or novel), enabling characters to change, mature, or die as the serial proceeds.[1][6]

The British television serial is rooted in dramatic radio productions developed between the First and the Second World Wars. In the 1920s the BBC pioneered dramatic readings of books. In 1925 it broadcast A Christmas Carol, which has become a holiday favourite. Later, John Reith, wanting to use radio waves to "part the clouds of ignorance"[7], came up with the idea of a classic serial, based on a "classical" literary text.

In 1939 the BBC adapted the romantic novel The Prisoner of Zenda for radio broadcast. Its adapter, Jack Inglis, summed up his approach as follows: "The story is simple, with clear cut characters, and falls easily into episodes. It always seems to me, that it is the first duty of an adapter to reproduce in another medium the original flavour and atmosphere of the book". Inglis compressed several characters into one and simplified the plotline. The production struck a chord with listeners and served as a prototype for serials that followed it.

Post-war BBC television picked up the classic radio serial tradition by broadcasting The Warden by Anthony Trollope over six-episodes in 1951. Pride and Prejudice was serialised in 1952, Jane Eyre in 1955. In 1953 the BBC broadcast the first serial written specifically for television: the six-part The Quatermass Experiment. Its success paved the way for two more six-part serials: Quatermass II in 1955 and Quatermass and the Pit in 1958. Early television technology considerably influenced the quality of the broadcast product: almost all productions were broadcast live from a small studio, with inserts shot on 35mm film at the beginning and end of episodes. After the invention of videotape the production could be recorded for re-runs. In November 1960 the BBC televised a thirteen-episode adaptation of Charles Dickens's Barnaby Rudge. In December of that year it broadcast a four-episode dramatization of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.[8]

To compete with commercial television, BBC launched BBC-2 in 1964. It had a new time slot allocated for classic serial adaptations on Saturday evenings. The late-night broadcast allowed for more risky and sophisticated choices and for longer episodes. In 1967 The Forsyte Saga was broadcast in 26 50-minute episodes. Following its success in Britain, the series was shown in the United States on public television and broadcast all over the world, and became the first BBC television series to be sold to the Soviet Union.[9][10]

According to Francis Wheen, it was the American success in 1969–1970 of the British 26-episode serial The Forsyte Saga (1967) that made US TV executives realize that finite stories based on novels could be popular and could provide a boost to weekly viewing figures.[1][6] In North America the form began in the spring of 1974 with the CBC's eight-part serial The National Dream, based on Pierre Berton's novel, and ABC's three-part QB VII, based on the novel by Leon Uris. Following these initial forays, broadcasters used miniseries to bring other books to the screen. Rich Man, Poor Man, based on the novel by Irwin Shaw, was broadcast in 12 one-hour episodes in 1976 by ABC. Alex Haley's Roots in 1977 can fairly be called the first blockbuster success of the format. Its success in the USA was partly due to its schedule: the 12-hour duration was split into eight episodes broadcast on consecutive nights, resulting in a finale with a 71 percent share of the audience and 130 million viewers, which at the time was the highest rated TV program of all time. TV Guide (April 11–17, 1987) called 1977's Jesus of Nazareth "the best miniseries of all time" and "unparalleled television". North and South, the 1985 adaptation of a 1982 novel by John Jakes, remains one of the 10 highest rated miniseries in TV history.[11][12][13] In 1988 War and Remembrance won for best miniseries, special effects and single-camera production editing, and was considered by some critics the ultimate epic miniseries on the American television.[14]

To designate one-season shows that are not intended for being renewed for additional seasons, the broadcast and television industry came up with terms like "limited series" or "event series". These terms also apply to multi-season shows which feature rotating casts and storylines each season, such as American Horror Story, Fargo and True Detective. This makes the self-contained season longer than a miniseries, but shorter than the entire run of the multi-season series. This terminology became relevant for the purpose of categorization of programs for industry awards.[16]

Several television executives interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter stated that the term "miniseries" has negative connotations to the public, having become associated with melodrama-heavy works that were commonly produced under the format, while "limited series" or "event series" demand higher respect.[17]

Japanese serialized television production can be traced back to the Sunday Diary of My Home (Waga Ya no Nichiyo Nikki), which was aired by NTV in 1953 and consisted of 25 half-hour episodes. This "home drama" focused on generational differences and the contradictions of being a loving family in a confined space, outlining a style of drama that lives on to this day. In the same year NHK tried its own variation of the home drama format in the Ups and Downs Toward Happiness (Kofuku e no Kifuku), which comprised thirteen episodes. Its protagonists, the formerly wealthy but turned penniless family is forced to struggle for its own existence.[18] Since then, Japanese television drama, also called dorama (ドラマ), became a staple of Japanese television.

Evening doramas air weekly and usually comprise ten to fourteen one-hour long episodes. Typically, instead of being episodic there is one story running throughout the episodes. Since they are of a fixed length, doramas have a definite ending, and since they are relatively long, they can explore character, situation, and interesting dialog in a way not possible in movies. Doramas are never canceled mid-season, but they also do not continue into the next season even if extremely popular. Popular doramas do often give rise to "specials" made after the final episode, if the show has been a huge success.[19]

South Korea started to broadcast television series (Hangul: 드라마; RR: deurama) in the 1960s. Since then, the shows became popular worldwide, partially due to the spread of the Korean Wave, with streaming services that offer multiple language subtitles.

Korean dramas are usually helmed by one director and written by one screenwriter, thus having a distinct directing style and language, unlike American television series, where often several directors and writers work together.[20] Series set in contemporary times usually run for one season, for 12−24 episodes of 60 minutes each.

Historical series (Sageuk) may be longer, with 50 to 200 episodes, and are either based on historical figures, incorporate historical events, or use a historical backdrop. While technically the word sageuk literally translates to "historical drama," the term is typically reserved for dramas taking place during Korean history.[21] Popular subjects of sageuks have traditionally included famous battles, royalty, famous military leaders and political intrigues.

Korean dramas are usually shot within a very tight schedule, often a few hours before actual broadcast. Screenplays are flexible and may change anytime during production, depending on viewers' feedback.

While the Soviet Union was among the first European countries to resume television broadcast after the Second World War, early Soviet television did not indulge its viewers with a variety of programming. News, sports, concerts and movies were the main staples during the 1950s. With state control over television production and broadcast, television was intended not merely for entertainment, but also as the means of education and propaganda. Soap operas, quiz shows and games were considered too lowbrow.[22]

In the beginning of the 1960s television was expanding rapidly. The increase in the number of channels and the duration of daily broadcast caused shortage of content deemed suitable for broadcast. This led to production of television films, in particular multiple-episode television films (Russian: многосерийный телевизионный фильм)—the official Soviet moniker for miniseries.[22] Despite that the Soviet Union started broadcasting in color in 1967, color TV sets did not become widespread until the end of the 1980s. This justified shooting made-for-TV movies on black-and-white film.

The 1965 four-episode Calling for fire, danger close[23] is considered the first Soviet miniseries. It is a period drama set in the Second World War depicting the Soviet guerrilla fighters infiltrating German compound and directing the fire of the regular Soviet Army to destroy the German airfield. During the 1970s the straightforward fervor gave way to a more nuanced interplay of patriotism, family and everyday life wrapped into traditional genres of crime drama, spy show or thriller. One of the most popular Soviet miniseries—Seventeen Moments of Spring[24] about a Soviet spy operating in Nazi Germany—was shot in 1972. This 12-episode miniseries incorporated features of political thriller and docudrama and included excerpts from period newsreels. Originally produced in black-and-white in 4:3 aspect ratio, it was colorized and re-formatted for wide-screen TVs in 2009.

Other popular miniseries of the Soviet era include The Shadows Disappear at Noon[25] (1971, 7 episodes) about the fate of several generations of locals from a Siberian village; The Long Recess[26] (1973, 4 episodes) about the students and teachers of a night school; The Ordeal[27] (1977, 13 episodes)—an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Aleksey Tolstoy, which traces the development of the Russian society during the critical years of the First World War, the 1917 revolution and the civil war that followed; Open Book[28] (1977, 9 episodes)—an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Veniamin Kaverin about a Soviet female microbiologist who obtained the first batches of penicillin in the Soviet Union and organized its production; The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed (1979, 5 episodes) about the fight against criminals in the immediate post-war period; The Suicide Club, or the Adventures of a Titled Person (1981, 3 episodes) about the adventures of Prince Florizel, a character of The Suicide Club stories by Robert Louis Stevenson; and TASS Is Authorized to Declare... (1984, 10 episodes) about the tug-of-war of Soviet and American intelligence agencies.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the Russian television saw a period of privatization and liberalization. The television programming of the 1990s-2000s included a great deal of crime dramas set both in contemporary times (The Criminal Sankt Petersburg[30], 2000, 90 episodes) as well in the Tsarist Russia (The Mysteries of Sankt Petersburg[31], 1994, 60 episodes).

In Brazil, the Rede Globo television network commenced the production of this type of television genre with the transmission of Lampião e Maria Bonita,[39][40] written by Aguinaldo Silva and Doc Comparato and directed by Paulo Afonso Grisolli, and broadcast in 1982 in eight episodes;[41] in Brazil these episodes are popularly known as "chapters", because each episode is analogous to a book chapter, where the following chapter begins at the same point where the previous one has ended.[42]

Rede Manchete, in the following year after its creation (1984), has produced and broadcast Marquesa de Santos.

Due to the fact that they are broadcast at a later time than telenovelas (usually after 22:00 or 10 p.m.), miniseries are more daring in terms of themes, scenes, dialogues and situations, a function previously played by the "novelas das dez"—a popular term referring to the telenovelas that were broadcast at 10 p.m. between 1969 and 1979.

Miniseries made by Rede Globo are released in the DVD format by the aforementioned television network, and a few of these miniseries are also released as a book, especially in the case of great successes such as Anos Rebeldes ("Rebel Years") and A Casa das Sete Mulheres ("The House of the Seven Women"); the latter was based on the eponymous book written by Letícia Wierzchowski, which became known due to the miniseries.

1.
Limited series (comics)
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In the field of comic books, a limited series is a comics series with a predetermined number of issues. A limited series differs from a series in that the number of issues is finite and determined before production. The term is used interchangeably with miniseries and maxiseries, usually depending on the length. In Dark Horse Comics definition of a series, This term primarily applies to a connected series of individual comic books. A limited series refers to a book series with a clear beginning, middle. Dark Horse Comics and DC Comics refer to limited series of two to eleven issues as miniseries and series of issues or more as maxiseries. The limited series has a story to tell. It follows the standard plot set-up of beginning, middle, usually, all plot points are covered by the end of the series. There have been limited series done in a format. Limited series are often done by a creative team, but in cases where there are changes. The number of issues is determined by some combination of the writers plotting. In 1979, in the process of recovering from the DC Implosion, publisher DC Comics experimented with a new format in the World of Krypton miniseries, as DC termed such short-run works. The new format allowed the company to tell stories that may not have fit into a series and to showcase characters into a short story without the risk. With the success of the format, DC followed by experimenting with longer stories. Debuting in 1982, Camelot 3000 was the first limited series to run to twelve issues, DC coined the term maxiseries as a promotional description for this. It did not take long for other publishers to begin using the limited-series format, Marvel Comics used it to feature popular characters from team titles and put them in solo adventures. Wolverines earliest solo adventures were told in limited series, crossovers were introduced in limited series form before the concept of multi-title crossovers was conceived. Contest of Champions brought forth the idea of an event affecting the Marvel Universe

2.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

3.
Television program
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It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions. A limited number of episodes of a show may be called a miniseries or a serial or limited series. Television series are without a fixed length and are divided into seasons or series. While there is no defined length, U. S. industry practice has traditionally favored longer television seasons than those of other countries, a one-time broadcast may be called a special, or particularly in the UK a special episode. A television film is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video, a program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television. Television programs may be fictional, or non-fictional and it may be topical, or historical. They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy, a drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures, except for soap opera-type serials, many shows especially before the 1980s, remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little. If some change happened to the characters lives during the episode, because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order. Since the 1980s, there are series that feature progressive change to the plot. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time television series to have this kind of dramatic structure. While the later series, Babylon 5 is an example of such production that had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run. In 2012, it was reported that television was growing into a component of major media companies revenues than film. Some also noted the increase in quality of television programs. When a person or company decides to create a new series, they develop the elements, consisting of the concept, the characters, the crew. Then they offer it to the networks in an attempt to find one interested enough to order a prototype first episode of the series. They want very much to get the word out on what types of shows they’re looking for, to create the pilot, the structure and team of the whole series must be put together. If the network likes the pilot, they pick up the show to air it the next season, sometimes they save it for mid-season, or request rewrites and further review

4.
Leslie Halliwell
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Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film critic and encyclopaedist who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoers Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwells Film Guide, another work of effort. In the era before the internet, Halliwells books were regarded as the one source for movie information. Halliwells promotion of the cinema through his books and seasons of golden oldies on Channel 4 won him awards from the London Film Critics Circle, the British Film Institute, born in Bolton, Lancashire in 1929, Halliwell was captivated by films from an early age. He grew up during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the period when the big studios churned out movies, Halliwell and his mother Lily went almost nightly to the cinema, which offered them an escape from the grim reality of life in a soot-covered mill town. In 1939, Halliwell won a scholarship to Bolton School and after national service he studied English Literature at St Catharines College, Cambridge. After graduating with a 2,1 honours degree, Halliwell worked briefly for Picturegoer magazine in London before returning to Cambridge to manage the Rex Cinema from 1952 to 1956. Under his management it became popular with the Cambridge undergraduate community, showing classic and vintage films such as The Blue Angel, Citizen Kane. The Cambridge Evening News reported, students felt their periods at Cambridge were incomplete without the weekly visit to the Rex, in 1955, after the British Censor had banned the Marlon Brando film The Wild One, Halliwell arranged for Cambridge magistrates to assess the picture. They subsequently granted him a licence and the Rex became the only cinema in Britain to show the film. Halliwell joined the Rank Organisation in 1956 on a three-year trainee course, in 1958, he joined Southern Television and was seconded to Granada Television a year later, where he remained for the next thirty years, at their offices in Londons Golden Square. He married Ruth Porter in 1959 and they had one son and he was given responsibility for buying TV shows and in 1968 became the chief film buyer for the ITV network, a role he maintained throughout the 1970s and most of the 1980s. Travelling to Hollywood twice a year to view the latest TV pilots and film offerings and to trade fairs in Cannes and Monte Carlo, Halliwell became a major player in the television industry. TV mogul Sir Paul Fox said of him, I cannot praise Leslie enough for his ethics, for his negotiating skills, the studios appreciated him as a fellow professional and had great, great respect for him at all levels. In 1982, at the invitation of Jeremy Isaacs, he became buyer and scheduler of US films for Channel 4, in keeping with the channels intention to appeal to specialist audiences, Halliwell focused primarily on the 1930s and 40s. Over the next few years the channel showed hundreds of movies in seasons, with many titles introduced by film-makers such as Samuel Goldwyn Jnr, Frank Launder. Cinema fans and critics alike greatly appreciated Halliwells efforts, with Jeremy Isaacs saying he had made a contribution to the channels success. The British Film Institute gave Halliwell an award in 1985 for the selection and acquisition of films with a view to creative scheduling

5.
Soap opera
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A soap opera, soap, or soapie, is a serial drama on television or radio that examines the lives of many characters, usually focusing on emotional relationships to the point of melodrama. The term soap opera originated from such dramas being typically sponsored by soap manufacturers in the past, the first serial considered to be a soap opera was Painted Dreams, which debuted on October 20,1930 on Chicago radio station WGN. The first nationally broadcast radio soap opera was Clara, Lu, and Em, a crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the features that makes a television program a soap opera. While Spanish language telenovelas are sometimes called soap operas, telenovelas have conflicts that get resolved, but with soap operas each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode. You spend more time even with the characters, the apparent villains grow less apparently villainous. Soap opera storylines run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments, each episode may feature some of the shows current storylines, but not always all of them. Soap operas rarely bring all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time, when one storyline ends, there are several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger, evening soap operas and those that air at a rate of one episode per week are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode, and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger, the article explained that at that time, many prime time series lost money, while daytime serials earned profits several times more than their production costs. Fitting in with these characteristics, most soap operas follow the lives of a group of characters who live or work in a particular place, the storylines follow the day-to-day activities and personal relationships of these characters. These elements may be found across the gamut of soap operas, Due to the prominence of English-language television, most soap-operas are completely English. In many soap operas, in particular daytime serials in the US, Soap operas from the United Kingdom and Australia tend to focus on more everyday characters and situations, and are frequently set in working class environments. Many of the soaps produced in two countries explore social realist storylines such as family discord, marriage breakdown or financial problems. This diverges from US soap operas where such comedy is rare, UK soap operas frequently make a claim to presenting reality or purport to have a realistic style. Romance, secret relationships, extramarital affairs, and genuine hate have been the basis for many soap opera storylines, in US daytime serials, the most popular soap opera characters, and the most popular storylines, often involved a romance of the sort presented in paperback romance novels. Crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and even murder may go unpunished if the perpetrator is to be retained in the ongoing story, Australian and UK soap operas also feature a significant proportion of romance storylines. In Russia, most popular serials explore the romantic quality of criminal and/or oligarch life, in soap opera storylines, previously unknown children, siblings and twins of established characters often emerge to upset and reinvigorate the set of relationships examined by the series

6.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

7.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

8.
A Christmas Carol
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A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas, commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843. A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who is visited by the ghost of his business partner Jacob Marley. After their visits Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past, such as carols, as well as new customs such as Christmas trees. He was influenced by experiences from his own past, and from the Christmas stories of other authors, including Washington Irving, the treatment of the poor and the ability of self-interested man redeeming himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story. There is discussion among academics as to whether this was a fully secular story, published on 19 December, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve, by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. Most critics reviewed the novella positively, the story was illicitly copied in January 1844, Dickens took action against the publishers, who went bankrupt, reducing further Dickenss small profits from the publication. He went on to four other Christmas stories in subsequent years. In 1849 he began public readings of the story proved so successful he undertook 127 further performances until 1870. A Christmas Carol has never been out of print and has translated into several languages. With A Christmas Carol, Dickens captured the zeitgeist of the revival of the Christmas holiday. Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labelled staves, the story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooges business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marleys ghost, the first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooges boyhood and youth, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The boyhood scenes portray Scrooges lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treated Scrooge like a son. They also portray Scrooges neglected fiancée Belle, who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money, finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on a recent Christmas Eve. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Freds Christmas party, a major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchits family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want and he tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooges concern for their welfare

9.
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
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His concept of broadcasting as a way of educating the masses marked for a long time the BBC and similar organisations around the world. Born at Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Reith was the youngest, by ten years, of the seven children of the Reverend Dr George Reith and he was to carry strict Presbyterian religious convictions forward into his adult life. Reith was educated at The Glasgow Academy then at Greshams School, Holt and his father refused to support any further education and apprenticed him as an engineer at the North British Locomotive Company. Reith was also a soldier in the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteers. In 1914, Reith left Glasgow for London, though he readily found work at the Royal Albert Dock, his commission in the 5th Scottish Rifles sent him serving in World War I. He was struck in the cheek by a bullet in October 1915, at time he was a Lieutenant. He spent the two years in the United States, supervising armament contracts, and became attracted to the country. He was promoted to Captain in 1917, before being transferred to the Royal Marine Engineers in 1918 as a Major and he returned to the Royal Engineers as a Captain in 1919. Reith resigned his Territorial Army commission in 1921, the end of the war found Reith returning to Glasgow as general manager of an engineering firm. In 1922, he returned to London, where he started working as secretary to the London Conservative group of MPs in the United Kingdom general election,1922 and that elections results were the first to be broadcast on the radio. Reith had no broadcasting experience when he replied to an advertisement in The Morning Post for a manager for an as-yet unformed British Broadcasting Company in 1922. He later admitted that he felt he possessed the necessary to manage any company. In 1926, Reith famously came into conflict with the Government during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike, the BBC bulletins reported, without comment, all sides in the dispute, including the TUCs and of union leaders. He even turned down a direct request from the Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald who wanted to deliver a talk, MacDonald complained that the BBC was biased and was misleading the public while other Labour Party figures were just as critical. Philip Snowden, the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, was one of those who wrote to the Radio Times to complain, Reiths reply also appeared in the Radio Times, admitting the BBC had not had complete liberty to do as it wanted. He recognised that at a time of emergency the government was never going to give the complete independence. The Labour leadership was not the only high-profile body denied a chance to comment on the strike. Davidson telephoned Reith about his idea on 7 May, saying he had spoken to the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, who had said he would not stop the broadcast, but would prefer it not to happen

10.
The Prisoner of Zenda
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The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope, is an adventure novel in which the King of Ruritania is drugged on the eve of his coronation and thus is unable to attend the ceremony. Political forces within the realm are such that, in order for the king to retain the crown, on the evening of the coronation of King Rudolf of Ruritania, his brother, Prince Michael, has him drugged. The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the town of Zenda. There are complications, plots, and counterplots, among them the schemes of Michaels mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, Rassendyll falls in love with Princess Flavia, the Kings betrothed, but cannot tell her the truth. He determines to rescue the king and leads an attempt to enter the castle of Zenda, the king is rescued and is restored to his throne, but the lovers, in duty bound, must part. The novel has been adapted many times, mainly for film but also stage, musical, operetta, radio, probably the best-known version is the 1937 Hollywood movie. The dashingly villainous Rupert of Hentzau has been interpreted by such matinee idols as Ramon Novarro, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. the Prisoner of Zenda was co-written by Hope and Edward Rose. It opened as a play in New York in 1895 starring E. H. Sothern, the Prisoner of Zenda, Starring James K. Hackett, Beatrice Beckley, David Torrence, Fraser Coalter, William R. Randall and Walter Hale. Adapted by Hugh Ford and directed by Ford and Edwin S. Porter, the Prisoner of Zenda, Starring Henry Ainley, Gerald Ames, George Bellamy, Marie Anita Bozzi, Jane Gail, Arthur Holmes-Gore, Charles Rock and Norman Yates. It was adapted by W. Courtney Rowden and directed by George Loane Tucker, the Prisoner of Zenda, Starring Ramón Novarro, Lewis Stone, Alice Terry, Robert Edeson, Stuart Holmes, Malcolm McGregor and Barbara La Marr. It was adapted by Mary OHara and directed by Rex Ingram, Princess Flavia, an operetta with the score by Sigmund Romberg. The Prisoner of Zenda, Starring Ronald Colman as Rassendyll and Rudolph, Madeleine Carroll as Princess Flavia, Raymond Massey as Michael, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Rupert of Hentzau, aubrey Smith as Colonel Zapt and David Niven as Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim. David O. Selznick decided to produce the film, partly as a comment on the Edward VIII abdication crisis, of the many film adaptations, this is considered by many to be the definitive version. Leslie Halliwell puts it at No, halliwells Film Guide 2008 calls it one of the most entertaining films to come out of Hollywood. Colman, Smith and Fairbanks reprised their roles for a 1939 episode of Lux Radio Theatre, the Prisoner of Zenda, Starring Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr, Louis Calhern, Jane Greer, Lewis Stone, Robert Douglas, James Mason and Robert Coote. Stone, who played the lead in the 1922 version, had a role in this remake. It was adapted by Edward Rose, Wells Root, John L. Balderston, Noel Langley and it was directed by Richard Thorpe. It is a copy of the 1937 film, the only difference being that it was made in Technicolor

11.
Anthony Trollope
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Anthony Trollope was an English novelist of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. He also wrote novels on political, social, and gender issues, Trollopes literary reputation dipped somewhat during the last years of his life, but he had regained the esteem of critics by the mid-20th century. Thomas Anthony Trollope, Anthonys father, was a barrister, though a clever and well-educated man and a Fellow of New College, Oxford, he failed at the bar due to his bad temper. In addition, his ventures into farming proved unprofitable, and he lost an expected inheritance when an elderly childless uncle remarried and had children, as a son of landed gentry, he wanted his sons to be raised as gentlemen and to attend Oxford or Cambridge. Anthony Trollope suffered much misery in his boyhood owing to the disparity between the background of his parents and their comparatively small means. Born in London, Anthony attended Harrow School as a day pupil for three years from the age of seven because his fathers farm, acquired for that reason. After a spell at a school at Sunbury, he followed his father. He returned to Harrow as a day-boy to reduce the cost of his education, Trollope had some very miserable experiences at these two public schools. They ranked as two of the most élite schools in England, but Trollope had no money and no friends, at the age of twelve, he fantasised about suicide. However, he also daydreamed, constructing elaborate imaginary worlds, in 1827, his mother Frances Trollope moved to America with Trollopes three younger siblings, to Nashoba Commune. After that failed, she opened a bazaar in Cincinnati, which proved unsuccessful, thomas Trollope joined them for a short time before returning to the farm at Harrow, but Anthony stayed in England throughout. His mother returned in 1831 and rapidly made a name for herself as a writer and his fathers affairs, however, went from bad to worse. He gave up his practice entirely and failed to make enough income from farming to pay rents to his landlord, Lord Northwick. In 1834, he fled to Belgium to avoid arrest for debt, the whole family moved to a house near Bruges, where they lived entirely on Francess earnings. In Belgium, Anthony was offered a commission in an Austrian cavalry regiment, to accept it, he needed to learn French and German, he had a year in which to acquire these languages. To learn them without expense to himself and his family, he took a position as an usher in a school in Brussels, after six weeks of this, however, he received an offer of a clerkship in the General Post Office, obtained through a family friend. He returned to London in the autumn of 1834 to take up this post, thomas Trollope died the following year

12.
Pride and Prejudice
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Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The comedy of the lies in the depiction of manners, education. Mr Bennet of the Longbourn estate has five daughters, but his property is entailed, since his wife had no fortune, it is imperative that one of the girls marries well in order to support the others on his death. However, Jane Austens opening line It is a universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife is a sentence filled with irony. The novel revolves around the necessity of marrying for love, not simply for mercenary reasons despite the pressures to make a good match. Pride and Prejudice retains the fascination of modern readers, consistently appearing near the top of lists of most-loved books among both scholars and the general public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, continuing interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic adaptations and an abundance of novels and stories imitating Austens memorable characters or themes. The novel opens with Mrs Bennet trying to persuade Mr Bennet to visit an eligible bachelor, Mr Bingley, after some verbal sparring with Mr Bennet baiting his wife, it transpires that this visit has taken place at Netherfield. The visit is followed by an invitation to a ball at the assembly rooms that the whole neighborhood will attend. At the ball, Mr Bingley is open and cheerful, popular with all the guests and his friend, Mr Darcy, is reputed to be twice as wealthy, however, he is haughty and aloof. He declines to dance with Elizabeth, suggesting that she is not pretty enough to tempt him and she finds this amusing and jokes about the statement with her friends. Jane also attracts the attention of Mr Bingleys sister Caroline, who invites her to visit, Jane visits Miss Bingley and is caught in a rain shower on the way, catching a serious cold. Elizabeth, out of concern for her sisters well being. This is the point at which Darcy begins to see the attraction of Elizabeth, Mr Collins, a cousin of Mr Bennet and heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family. He is a pompous and obsequious clergyman because he expects each of the Bennet girls to wish to marry him due to his inheritance and he plans to propose to Elizabeth over Jane as he is led to believe Jane is taken. Elizabeths dislike of Mr Darcy is confirmed, at a ball at which Mr Wickham is not present, Elizabeth dances with Mr Darcy rather against her will. Other than Jane and Elizabeth, all the members of the Bennet family show their lack of decorum, Mrs Bennet states loudly that she expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged and each member of the family exposes the whole to ridicule. The following morning, Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth and she rejects him, to the fury of her mother and the relief of her father

13.
Jane Eyre
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Jane Eyre /ˈɛər/ is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published on 16 October 1847, by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, the first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Charlotte Brontë has been called the first historian of the private consciousness, the novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. The novels setting is somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III, John Rivers, proposes to her, and her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. During these sections the novel provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters, and most editions are at least 400 pages long. The original publication was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15,16 to 27, and 28 to 38, Brontë dedicated the novels second edition to William Makepeace Thackeray. The novel begins with the character, Jane Eyre, aged 10, living with her maternal uncles family. It is several years after her parents died of typhus, Mr. Reed, Janes uncle, was the only person in the Reed family who was ever kind to Jane. Janes aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her, treats her as a burden, Mrs. Reed and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The nursemaid Bessie proves to be Janes only ally in the household, excluded from the family activities, Jane is incredibly unhappy, with only a doll and books for comfort. She is subsequently attended to by the apothecary, Mr. Lloyd. He recommends to Mrs. Reed that Jane should be sent to school, Mrs. Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh Mr. Brocklehurst, director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls. Mrs. Reed cautions Mr. Brocklehurst that Jane has a tendency for deceit, during a school inspection by Mr. Brocklehurst, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, thereby drawing attention to herself. He then stands her on a stool, brands her a liar, Jane is later comforted by her friend, Helen. Miss Temple, the superintendent, facilitates Janes self-defence and writes to Mr. Lloyd. Jane is then cleared of Mr. Brocklehursts accusations. The 80 pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes, and Janes friend Helen dies of consumption in her arms. When Mr. Brocklehursts maltreatment of the students is discovered, several benefactors erect a new building, conditions at the school then improve dramatically

14.
The Quatermass Experiment
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The Quatermass Experiment is a British science-fiction serial broadcast by BBC Television during the summer of 1953 and re-staged by BBC Four in 2005. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth and it becomes apparent that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world. Originally comprising six episodes, it was the first science-fiction production to be written especially for an adult television audience in Britain. It also influenced successful Hollywood films such as 2001, A Space Odyssey, the serial was written by BBC television drama writer Nigel Kneale, who had been an actor and an award-winning fiction writer before joining the BBC. The BBCs Head of Television Drama, Michael Barry, had committed most of his original budget for the year to employing Kneale. An interest in science, particularly the idea of going bad. Rudolph Cartier, one of the BBCs best-regarded directors, directed the serial and he and Kneale had collaborated on the play Arrow to the Heart, and worked closely on the initial storyline to make it suit the television production methods of the time. Kneale claimed to have picked his leading characters unusual last name at random from a London telephone directory and he chose the characters first name, Bernard, in honour of astronomer Bernard Lovell. The working titles for the production were The Unbegotten and Bring Something Back, the latter a line of dialogue in the second episode. Kneale had not finished scripting the final two episodes of the serial before the first episode was transmitted, the production had an overall budget of just under £4000. The theme music used was Mars, Bringer of War from Gustav Holsts The Planets, each episode was rehearsed from Monday to Friday at the Student Movement House on Gower Street in London, with camera rehearsals taking place all day on Saturday before transmission. These cameras gave a poor-quality picture, with areas of black, the Quatermass Experiment was transmitted weekly on Saturday night from 18 July to 22 August 1953. Episode one was scheduled from 8.15 to 8.45 p. m. episode two,8. 25–8.55 p. m. episodes three and four,8. 45–9.15 p. m. and the two episodes from 9.00 to 9.30 p. m. Due to the performances, each episode overran its slot slightly. The long overrun of the episode was caused by a temporary break in transmission to replace a failing microphone. Kneale later claimed that the BBCs transmission controllers had threatened to take them off the air during one significant overrun, to which Cartier replied, some BBC documentation suggests that at least one transmitter region did cut short the broadcast of the final episode. The BBC intended that each episode be telerecorded onto 35mm film, sale of the serial had been provisionally agreed with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Cartier wanted the material available to use for trailers and recaps. Only poor-quality copies of the first two episodes were recorded before the idea was abandoned, although the first of these was later shown in Canada

15.
Videotape
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Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either a signal or digital signal. Videotape is used in video tape recorders or, more commonly, videocassette recorders and camcorders. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the produced by an electrocardiogram. Tape is a method of storing information and thus imposes delays to access a portion of the tape that is not already under the heads. The early 2000s saw the introduction and rise to prominence of high quality video recording media such as hard disks. Since then, videotape has been relegated to archival and similar uses. The electronics division of entertainer Bing Crosbys production company, Bing Crosby Enterprises, overall the picture quality was still considered inferior to the best kinescope recordings on film. Bing Crosby Enterprises hoped to have a version available in 1954. The BBC experimented from 1952 to 1958 with a high-speed linear videotape system called VERA and it used half-inch tape traveling at 200 inches per second. RCA demonstrated the magnetic recording of both black-and-white and color television programs at its Princeton laboratories on December 1,1953. The high-speed longitudinal tape system, called Simplex, in development since 1951, could record, the color system used half-inch tape to record five tracks, one each for red, blue, green, synchronization, and audio. The black-and-white system used quarter-inch tape with two tracks, one for video and one for audio, both systems ran at 360 inches per second. RCA-owned NBC first used it on The Jonathan Winters Show on October 23,1956 when a song sequence by Dorothy Collins in color was included in the otherwise live television program. BCE demonstrated a color system in February 1955 using a longitudinal recording on half-inch tape. CBS, RCAs competitor, was about to order BCE machines when Ampex introduced the superior Quadruplex system, BCE was acquired by 3M Company in 1956. Quad employed a transverse four-head system on a tape. On January 22,1957, the NBC Television game show Truth or Consequences, produced in Hollywood, Ampex introduced a color videotape recorder in 1958 in a cross-licensing agreement with RCA, whose engineers had developed it from an Ampex black-and-white recorder

16.
Charles Dickens
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Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity, born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Dickenss literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the publication of narrative fiction. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audiences reaction, and he modified his plot. For example, when his wifes chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities and his plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the poor chipped in hapennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age and his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also adapted, and, like many of his novels. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London, Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of depth, loose writing. The term Dickensian is used to something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport in Portsea Island and his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majestys Navy, gentleman, Huffam is thought to be the inspiration for Paul Dombey, the owner of a shipping company in Dickenss eponymous Dombey and Son. In January 1815 John Dickens was called back to London, when Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness, and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, though he himself a very small. Charles spent time outdoors but also read voraciously, including the novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding, as well as Robinson Crusoe

17.
Jane Austen
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Jane Austen was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austens plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of social standing. Her works critique the novels of sensibility of the half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. With the publications of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park and Emma and she wrote two additional novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1818, and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but died before its completion. Her novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously, a significant transition in her posthumous reputation occurred in 1869, fifty-two years after her death, when her nephews publication of A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider audience. Austen has inspired a number of critical essays and literary anthologies. Her novels have inspired many films, from 1940s Pride and Prejudice to more recent productions, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austens use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary have earned her great and historical importance to critics and scholars. The Bank of England has confirmed that the face of the new plastic £10 note will be Austen, the notes are expected to be released in summer 2017. There is little information about Jane Austens life except the few letters that survive. During her lifetime Austen wrote approximately 3,000 letters but only about 160 survive, many of the letters were written to Austens older sister Cassandra, who in 1843 burned the greater part of them and cut pieces out of those she kept. Cassandra believed that in the interest of tact and Janes penchant for forthrightness, the paucity of record of Austens life leaves modern biographers little to work with. The situation was compounded as successive generations of the family expunged and sanitized the already opaque details of Austens biography, Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, on 16 December 1775. She was born a month later than her parents expected, her father wrote of her arrival in a letter that her mother certainly expected to have brought to bed a month ago. He added that her arrival was particularly welcome as a companion to her sister. The winter of 1776 was particularly harsh and it was not until 5 April that she was baptised at the church with the single name Jane. For much of Janes life, George Austen served as the rector of the Anglican parishes at Steventon, and he came from an old, respected, and wealthy family of wool merchants. Over the centuries as each generation of eldest sons received inheritances their wealth was consolidated and he and his two sisters were orphaned as children and had to be taken in by relatives. His sister Philadelphia went to India to find a husband and George entered St Johns College, Oxford on a fellowship and she came from the prominent Leigh family, her father was rector at All Souls College, Oxford, where she grew up among the gentry

18.
Persuasion (novel)
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Persuasion is the last novel fully completed by Jane Austen. It was published at the end of 1817, six months after her death and they rent their home to an Admiral and his wife. The wife’s brother, Navy Captain Frederick Wentworth, had engaged to Anne in 1806. This sets the scene for many humorous encounters as well as a second, well-considered chance at love, the novel was well-received in the early 19th century. Greater fame came later in the century, continued in the 20th century, much scholarly debate on Austens work has since been published. Anne Elliot is noteworthy among Jane Austens heroines for her relative maturity, as Persuasion is Austens last completed novel, it is accepted as her most maturely written novel showing a refinement of literary conception indicative of a woman approaching forty years of age. Unlike Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, the novel Persuasion was not rewritten from earlier drafts of novels which Austen had originally started before 1800 and her use of free indirect discourse in narrative was by 1816 fully developed and in full evidence. The first edition of Persuasion was co-published with the previously unpublished Northanger Abbey, written in 1803, the story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to then Commander Frederick Wentworth. Anne Elliot, then 19 years old, fell in love and he was clever, confident, ambitious, and employed, but not yet wealthy and with no particular family connections to recommend him. Her father Sir Walter and her older sister Elizabeth maintained that he was no match for an Elliot of Kellynch Hall, Lady Russell, acting in place of Annes late mother, persuaded her to break the engagement, which she saw as imprudent for one so young. They are the ones who know about this short engagement. The Elliot family is now in financial trouble, Kellynch Hall will be let, and the family will settle in Bath until finances improve. The Baronet Sir Walter, the father and daughter Elizabeth. Anne is less sure she will enjoy Bath, Mary is married to Charles Musgrove of nearby Uppercross Hall, the heir to a respected local squire. Anne visits Mary and her family, where she is well-loved, the end of the war puts sailors back on shore, including the tenants of Kellynch Hall, Admiral Croft and his wife Sophia, who is the sister of Frederick Wentworth, now a wealthy naval captain. Frederick visits his sister and meets the Uppercross family, including Anne, the Musgroves, including Mary, Charles, and Charless sisters, Henrietta and Louisa, welcome the Crofts and Wentworth. He tells all he is ready to marry, Henrietta is engaged to her clergyman cousin Charles Hayter, who is away for the first few days that Wentworth joins their social circle. Both the Crofts and Musgroves enjoy speculating about which sister Wentworth might marry, once Hayter returns, Henrietta turns her affections to him again

19.
BBC Two
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BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. It covers a range of subject matter, but tending towards more highbrow programmes than the more mainstream. Like the BBCs other domestic TV and radio channels, it is funded by the television licence and it is a comparatively well-funded public service network, regularly attaining a much higher audience share than most public service networks worldwide. Originally styled BBC2, it was the third British television station to be launched, a high-definition version of the channel launched on 26 March 2013, replacing BBC HD. British television at the time of BBC2s launch consisted of two channels, the BBC Television Service and the ITV network made up of regional companies. Both channels had existed in a state of competition since ITVs launch in 1955, the 1962 Pilkington Report on the future of broadcasting noticed this, and that ITV lacked any serious programming. It therefore decided that Britains third television station should be awarded to the BBC, prior to its launch, the new BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service, the soon to be renamed BBC1. The animated adverts featured the campaign mascots Hullabaloo, a mother kangaroo, however, at around 18,45 a huge power failure, originating from a fire at Battersea Power Station, caused Television Centre, and indeed much of west London, to lose all power. BBC1 was able to continue broadcasting via its facilities at Alexandra Palace, associated-Rediffusion, the London weekday ITV franchise-holder, offered to transmit on the BBCs behalf, but their gesture was rejected. At 22,00 programming was officially postponed until the following morning, there was believed to be no recording made of this bulletin, but a videotape was discovered in early 2003. By 11,00 on 21 April, power had restored to the studios and programming began. The launch schedule, postponed from the night before, was successfully shown that evening. In reference to the cut, the transmission opened with a shot of a lit candle which was then sarcastically blown out by presenter Denis Tuohy. To establish the new identity and draw viewers to it. The production chosen was The Forsyte Saga, a adaptation of the novels by John Galsworthy, featuring well-established actors Kenneth More. Unlike BBC1 and ITV, BBC2 was broadcast only on the 625 line UHF system and this created a market for dual standard receivers which could switch between the two systems. On 1 July 1967, during the Wimbledon Championships, BBC2 became the first channel in Europe to begin broadcasts in colour. The thirteen part series Civilisation was created as a celebration of two millennia of western art and culture to showpiece the new colour technology, BBC1 and ITV later joined BBC2 on 625-line UHF band, but continued to simulcast on 405-line VHF until 1985

20.
The Forsyte Saga (1967 series)
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The Forsyte Saga is a 1967 BBC television adaptation of John Galsworthys series of The Forsyte Saga novels, and its sequel trilogy A Modern Comedy. The series follows the fortunes of the middle class Forsyte family. It was therefore the Sunday night repeat run on BBC1, starting on 8 September 1968 and it was shown in the United States on public television and broadcast all over the world, and became the first BBC television series to be sold to the Soviet Union. Donald Wilson initially intended to produce the series as a 15-part serial adapted by Constance Cox in 1959, however, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer held the rights to the novels, having adapted the first novel A Man of Property into That Forsyte Woman in 1949. After a distribution arrangement with MGM was reached in 1965, the series developed into a groundbreaking 26-part serial, the Forsyte Saga was the last major British drama serial to be made in black and white, even though the BBC was beginning to equip for full-time colour transmission. The series was a gamble for the BBC, with a budget of £10,000 per episode. Although never credited, the music that opens and closes each episode is the first movement, Halcyon Days, the production featured a cast of well-known character actors, of whom the film star Kenneth More was the most famous name. This was originally intended to encourage viewers to switch over to BBC2 and it was when the series was later repeated on Sunday evenings on BBC1, starting on 8 September 1968, that the programmes success was secured with 18 million tuning in for the final episode in 1969. A retrospective on the series by PBS Masterpiece Theatre notes that, pubs closed early and the streets were deserted. The Church even rescheduled its evening worship services so that the audience could be ready for the start of the show at 7. The worldwide audience was estimated as something in the region of 160 million, the series won a Royal Television Society Silver Medal and a BAFTA for Best Drama Series or Serial. Following its transmission in 1967 by RTÉ, the Republic of Irelands national broadcast service, the series success prompted companies to invest in similarly scaled drama serials, which resulted in programmes such as The Pallisers and Upstairs, Downstairs. One hundred million people in 26 countries ended up seeing Donald Wilsons version of the saga, episode 13 was repeated on BBC2 on 2 November 1986 as part of a series of programmes shown to mark the fiftieth anniversary of BBC Television. In 1992 the series was released in the UK on an 8-volume set of videos, the Forsyte Saga at the Museum of Broadcast Communication The Forsyte Saga at the BFIs Screenonline The Forsyte Saga at BBC Programmes The Forsyte Saga at the Internet Movie Database

21.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster. Although some local stations in Canada predate CBCs founding, CBC is the oldest existing broadcasting network in Canada, Radio services include CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2, Ici Radio-Canada Première, Ici Musique and the international radio service Radio Canada International. Television operations include CBC Television, Ici Radio-Canada Télé, CBC News Network, Ici RDI, Ici Explora, Documentary Channel, the CBC operates services for the Canadian Arctic under the names CBC North and Radio-Canada Nord. The radio service employed commercials from its inception to 1974, since then, its primary radio networks, like the BBC, have been commercial-free. However, in the fall of 2013, CBCs secondary radio networks Radio 2, in 1929, the Aird Commission on public broadcasting recommended the creation of a national radio broadcast network. A major concern was the influence of American radio broadcasting as U. S. -based networks began to expand into Canada. Meanwhile, Canadian National Railways was making a network to keep its passengers entertained and give it an advantage over its rival. This, the CNR Radio, is the forerunner of the CBC, Graham Spry and Alan Plaunt lobbied intensely for the project on behalf of the Canadian Radio League. In 1932 the government of R. B. Bennett established the CBCs predecessor, the CRBC took over a network of radio stations formerly set up by a federal Crown corporation, the Canadian National Railway. The network was used to broadcast programming to riders aboard its passenger trains, with coverage primarily in central, on November 2,1936, the CRBC was reorganised under its present name. While the CRBC was a company, the CBC was a Crown corporation on the model of the BBC. Leonard Brockington was the CBCs first chairman, for the next few decades, the CBC was responsible for all broadcasting innovation in Canada. This was in part because, until 1958, it was not only a broadcaster and it used this dual role to snap up most of the clear-channel licences in Canada. It began a separate French-language radio network in 1937 and it introduced FM radio to Canada in 1946, though a distinct FM service wasnt launched until 1960. Television broadcasts from the CBC began on September 6,1952, with the opening of a station in Montreal, Quebec, the CBCs first privately owned affiliate television station, CKSO in Sudbury, Ontario, launched in October 1953. From 1944 to 1962, the CBC split its English-language radio network into two known as the Trans-Canada Network and the Dominion Network. The latter, carrying lighter programs including American radio shows, was dissolved in 1962, on July 1,1958, CBCs television signal was extended from coast to coast. The first Canadian television show shot in colour was the CBCs own The Forest Rangers in 1963, colour television broadcasts began on July 1,1966, and full-colour service began in 1974

22.
Pierre Berton
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Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC OOnt was a noted Canadian author of non-fiction, especially Canadiana and Canadian history, and was a well-known television personality and journalist. An accomplished storyteller, Berton was one of Canadas most prolific and he wrote on popular culture, Canadian history, critiques of mainstream religion, anthologies, childrens books and historical works for youth. He was also a founder of the Writers Trust of Canada, Bertons 50 books became popular because his light and fast-paced style was not weighted down by footnotes or deep probes into primary sources. Stacey in 1980, said Berton demonstrated his skill as an anecdotalist, or storyteller and his two-volume documentation on the War of 1812, running 928 pages, was republished in 2011 as Pierre Bertons War of 1812. He was born on July 12,1920, in Whitehorse, Yukon and his family moved to Dawson City, Yukon in 1921. His mother, Laura Beatrice Berton was a teacher in Toronto until she was offered a job as a teacher in Dawson City at the age of 29 in 1907. She met Frank Berton in the mining town of Granville shortly after settling in Dawson. Bertons family moved to Victoria, British Columbia in 1932, at age 12 he joined the Scout Movement and later wrote that The Scout Movement was the making of me. He credited Scouting with keeping him from becoming a juvenile delinquent and he started his journalism career in scouting and later wrote that the ﬁrst newspaper I was ever associated with was a weekly typewritten publication issued by the Seagull Patrol of St. Mary’s Troop. He remained in scouting for seven years and wrote about his experiences in an article titled My Love Affair with the Scout Movement. Like his father, Pierre Berton worked in Klondike mining camps during his years as a major at the University of British Columbia. He spent his early career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He elected to go Active and his aptitude was such that he was appointed Lance Corporal and attended NCO school, due to a background in university COTC and inspired by other citizen-soldiers who had been commissioned, he sought training as an officer. Berton spent the several years attending a variety of military courses, becoming, in his words. He was warned for overseas duty many times, and was granted embarkation leave many times, in the UK, he was told that he would have to requalify as an IO because the syllabus in the UK was different from that in the intelligence school in Canada. By the time Berton had requalified, the war in Europe had ended and he volunteered for the Canadian Army Pacific Force, granted a final embarkation leave, and found himself no closer to combat employment by the time the Japanese surrendered in September 1945. In 1947 he went on an expedition to the Nahanni River with pilot Russ Baker, Bertons account for the Vancouver Sun was picked up by International News Service, making him a noted adventure-travel writer. Berton moved to Toronto in 1947, at the age of 31 he was named managing editor of Macleans

23.
American Broadcasting Company
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The network is headquartered on Columbus Avenue and West 66th Street in Manhattan, New York City. There are additional offices and production facilities elsewhere in New York City, as well as in Los Angeles and Burbank. Since 2007, when ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC originally launched on October 12,1943, as a radio network, separated from and serving as the successor to the NBC Blue Network, which had been purchased by Edward J. Noble. It extended its operations to television in 1948, following in the footsteps of established broadcast networks CBS, in the mid-1950s, ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, a chain of movie theaters that formerly operated as a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. Leonard Goldenson, who had been the head of UPT, made the new television network profitable by helping develop, in 1996, most of Capital Cities/ABCs assets were purchased by The Walt Disney Company. The television network has eight owned-and-operated and over 232 affiliated television stations throughout the United States, most Canadians have access to at least one U. S. ABC News provides news and features content for radio stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. In the 1930s, radio in the United States was dominated by three companies, the Columbia Broadcasting System, the Mutual Broadcasting System and the National Broadcasting Company. The last was owned by electronics manufacturer Radio Corporation of America, in 1938, the FCC began a series of investigations into the practices of radio networks and published its report on the broadcasting of network radio programs in 1940. The report recommended that RCA give up control of either NBC Red or NBC Blue, at that time, the NBC Red Network was the principal radio network in the United States and, according to the FCC, RCA was using NBC Blue to eliminate any hint of competition. Once Mutuals appeals against the FCC were rejected, RCA decided to sell NBC Blue in 1941, the newly separated NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their respective corporate assets. Investment firm Dillon, Read & Co. offered $7.5 million to purchase the network, Edward John Noble, the owner of Life Savers candy, drugstore chain Rexall and New York City radio station WMCA, purchased the network for $8 million. Due to FCC ownership rules, the transaction, which was to include the purchase of three RCA stations by Noble, would require him to resell his station with the FCCs approval, the Commission authorized the transaction on October 12,1943. Soon afterward, the Blue Network was purchased by the new company Noble founded, Noble subsequently acquired the rights to the American Broadcasting Company name from George B. Meanwhile, in August 1944, the West Coast division of the Blue Network, both stations were then managed by Don Searle, the vice-president of the Blue Networks West Coast division. The ABC Radio Network created its audience slowly, the network also became known for such suspenseful dramas as Sherlock Holmes, Gang Busters and Counterspy, as well as several mid-afternoon youth-oriented programs. S. From Nazi Germany after its conquest, to pre-record its programming, while its radio network was undergoing reconstruction, ABC found it difficult to avoid falling behind on the new medium of television. To ensure a space, in 1947, ABC submitted five applications for television station licenses, the ABC television network made its debut on April 19,1948, with WFIL-TV in Philadelphia becoming its first primary affiliate

24.
QB VII
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QB VII by Leon Uris is a dramatic courtroom novel published in 1970. The four-part novel highlights the events leading to a trial in the United Kingdom. The novel was Uriss second consecutive #1 New York Times Best Seller, the novel is loosely based on a court case for defamation that arose from Uris previous best-selling novel Exodus. It began airing on ABC on April 29,1974, adapted to the screen by Edward Anhalt, it was produced by Douglas S. Cramer and directed by Tom Gries. The original music was written by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Paul Beeson, the six-and-a-half-hour miniseries won six primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for several more. Adam Kelno has fled to England in the days following World War II, when the witness is unable to identify him as one of the doctors who castrated him, he is released. Kelno takes his wife and young son to Sarawak, where he labors for years, upon his return to England, he is knighted. Twenty years have passed, and he has just begun to enjoy his life of renown, when a book is published, which names him as a willing participant to Nazi medical experiments on Jews in the camps. He sues for defamation, and finds not only can he not escape his past. QB VII refers to the courtroom in which the trial is held, Queens Bench and he had already had a laryngectomy for throat cancer, and used esophageal speech in his speaking parts. He died soon after filming was completed, QB VII was released as a Region 1 DVD on May 29,2001. List of Holocaust films QB VII at the Internet Movie Database

25.
Leon Uris
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Leon Marcus Uris was an American author, known for his historical fiction. His two bestselling books were Exodus and Trinity, Uris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Jewish American parents Wolf William and Anna Uris. His father, a Polish-born immigrant, was a paperhanger, then a storekeeper and his mother was first-generation Russian American. William spent a year in Palestine after World War I before entering the United States and he derived his last name from Yerushalmi, meaning man of Jerusalem. He was basically a failure, Uris later said of his father, I think his personality was formed by the harsh realities of being a Jew in Czarist Russia. I think failure formed his character, made him bitter, at age six, Uris reportedly wrote an operetta inspired by the death of his dog. He attended schools in Norfolk, Virginia and Baltimore, but never graduated high school. When he was 17 and in his year of high school. He served in the South Pacific with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marines, where he was stationed in New Zealand, and fought as a radioman in combat on Guadalcanal and Tarawa from 1942 through 1944. He was sent to the US after suffering from fever, malaria. While recuperating from malaria in San Francisco, he met Betty Beck, coming out of the service, he worked for a newspaper, writing in his spare time. Esquire magazine, in 1950, bought an article, and he began to devote himself to writing more seriously, drawing on his experiences in Guadalcanal and Tarawa, he produced the best-selling Battle Cry, a novel depicting the toughness and courage of U. S. He then went to Warner Brothers in Hollywood helping to write the movie and he went on to write The Angry Hills, a novel set in war-time Greece. His best-known work may be Exodus, which was published in 1958 and it is said that the book involved two years of research, and involved thousands of interviews. Exodus illustrated the history of Palestine from the late 19th century through the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, Uris 1967 novel Topaz was adapted for the screen and directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1969. He wrote the screenplays for Battle Cry and Gunfight at the O. K. Corral and his work having to do with the subject of Israel has been criticized for being biased against Arabs. His first wife was Betty Beck, whom he married in 1945 and they had three children before divorcing in 1968. He then married Marjorie Edwards in 1968, who committed suicide by gunshot the following year and his third and last wife was Jill Peabody, with whom he had two children

26.
Rich Man, Poor Man (miniseries)
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It was produced by Universal Television and was the second time programming of this nature had been attempted. The first TV miniseries, QB VII, had aired — also on ABC — in 1974 and these projects proved to be a critical and ratings success and were the forerunner for similar projects based on literary works, such as Roots and Shōgun. The film stars Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte and Susan Blakely and it spawned the sequel Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, which aired from September 1976 through March 1977. The network repeated the original series Tuesday nights at 9, 00pm from May to June 1977, rudy was the titular rich man, a well-educated and very ambitious entrepreneur who triumphed over his background and constructed a corporate and political empire. Poor man Tom was a rebel who eventually turned to boxing to support himself, axel and Mary were their parents, and Julie Prescott was Rudys lifelong sweetheart who eventually married him. Later, another important character appears, the dangerous and eccentric Falconetti, lifelong nemesis of the Jordache Brothers, while the first series spans a twenty year period between 1945 and 1965, the second series begins in 1968. The series became a success in the countries that aired it. Dean Riesner wrote all twelve episodes, and direction was shared by Bill Bixby, David Greene, the musical score was composed by Alex North, who was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special. Notes Rich Man, Poor Man at the Internet Movie Database

27.
Irwin Shaw
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Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. Though Shaws work received critical acclaim, the success of his commercial fiction ultimately diminished his literary reputation. Shaw was born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff in the South Bronx, New York City and his parents were Rose and Will. His younger brother, David Shaw, became a noted Hollywood producer and writer, shortly after Irwins birth, the Shamforoffs moved to Brooklyn. Irwin changed his surname upon entering college and he spent most of his youth in Brooklyn, where he graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934. Shaw died in Davos, Switzerland on May 16,1984, aged 71, Shaw began screenwriting in 1935 at the age of 21, and scripted for several radio shows, including Dick Tracy, The Gumps and Studio One. His play Quiet City, directed by Elia Kazan and with music by Aaron Copland. During the 1940s, Shaw wrote for a number of films, including The Talk of the Town, The Commandos Strike at Dawn and they had one son, Adam Shaw, born in 1950, himself a writer of magazine articles and non-fiction. Shaw enlisted in the U. S. Army and was a warrant officer during World War II, the Young Lions, Shaws first novel, was published in 1948. Based on his experiences in Europe during the war, the novel was successful and was adapted into a 1958 film. Shaw was not happy with the film, Shaws second novel, The Troubled Air, chronicling the rise of McCarthyism, was published in 1951. Accused of being a communist by the Red Channels publication, Shaw was placed on the Hollywood blacklist by the studio bosses. In 1951 he left the United States and went to Europe and he later claimed that the blacklist only glancingly bruised his career. During the 1950s he wrote several screenplays, including Desire Under the Elms. While living in Europe, Shaw wrote more bestselling books, notably Lucy Crown, Two Weeks in Another Town, Rich Man, Poor Man, Rich Man, Poor Man was adapted into a highly successful ABC television miniseries in 1976. His novel The Top of the Hill was made into a TV movie about the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980, starring Wayne Rogers, Adrienne Barbeau and his last two novels were Bread Upon the Waters and Acceptable Losses. Among his noted short stories are, Sailor Off The Bremen, The Eighty-Yard Run, three of his stories were dramatized for the PBS series Great Performances. This production was released on DVD in 2002 by Kultur Video, in 1950, Shaw wrote a book on Israel with photos by Robert Capa named Report on Israel

28.
Alex Haley
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Alexander Murray Palmer Alex Haley was an American writer and the author of the 1976 book Roots, The Saga of an American Family. ABC adapted the book as a miniseries of the same name. In the United States the book and miniseries raised the awareness of African American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy. Haleys first book was The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous interviews with the subject. He was working on a family history novel at his death. Haley had requested that David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it and it was adapted as a film of the same name released in 1992. Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, on August 11,1921, Haley lived with his family in Henning, Tennessee, before returning to Ithaca with his family when he was five years old. Haleys father was Simon Haley, a professor of agriculture at Alabama A&M University, and his mother was Bertha George Haley, the family had African American, Mandinka, Cherokee, Scottish, and Scots-Irish roots. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the obstacles of racism he had overcome, the following year he returned to his father and stepmother to tell them he had withdrawn from college. His father felt that Alex needed discipline and growth, and convinced him to enlist in the military when he turned 18, on May 24,1939, Alex Haley began what became a 20-year career in the United States Coast Guard. Haley traced back his maternal ancestry, through research, to Jufureh. Haley enlisted as a mess attendant, later he was promoted to the rate of petty officer third-class in the rating of steward, one of the few ratings open to African Americans at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories, during his enlistment other sailors often paid him to write love letters to their girlfriends. He said that the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long voyages was not the Japanese forces, after World War II, Haley petitioned the U. S. Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism. By 1949 he had become a petty officer first-class in the rating of journalist and he later advanced to chief petty officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959. He was the first chief journalist in the Coast Guard, the rating having been created for him in recognition of his literary ability. Further, the Republic of Korea awarded him the War Service Medal 10 years after he died, after retiring from the U. S. Coast Guard, Haley began another phase of his journalism career. He eventually became an editor for Readers Digest magazine

29.
Roots (1977 miniseries)
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Roots is an American television miniseries based on Alex Haleys 1976 novel, Roots, The Saga of an American Family, the series first aired on ABC-TV in January 1977. Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine and it also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. S. It was produced on a budget of $6.6 million, the series introduced LeVar Burton in the role of Kunta Kinte. A sequel, Roots, The Next Generations, first aired in 1979, and a sequel, Roots, The Gift. A related film, Alex Haleys Queen, is based on the life of Queen Jackson Haley, in 2016, a remake of the original miniseries, with the same name, was commissioned by the History Channel and screened by the channel on Memorial Day. In The Gambia, West Africa, in 1750, Kunta Kinte is born to Omoro Kinte, a Mandinka warrior, while trying to carry out a task to catch a bird and take it home unharmed, Kunta sees white men carrying firearms, along with their black collaborators. Later, while fetching wood outside his village to make a drum for his younger brother and he is then sold to a slave trader and placed aboard a ship under the command of Capt. Thomas Davies for a three-month journey to Colonial America. During the voyage a group of rebels among the human cargo try but fail to stage a mutiny, the ship eventually arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1767, where the captured Africans are sold at auction as slaves. John Reynolds, an owner from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near Fredericksburg, buys Kunta. Reynolds assigns an older slave, Fiddler, to teach Kunta to speak English, Kunta, in a persistent struggle to become free again, makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape. Further, to preserve his Mandinka heritage and maintain his Mandinka roots, he not to change his name. An overseer, Ames, gathers the slaves and directs one of them to whip Kunta after his latest attempt to escape, for events that occur in 1775, between the above period and the post-Revolutionary War, where the next section begins, see Roots, The Gift. In 1776 the adult Kunta Kinte experiences serving as a slave and feels haunted by his Mandinka roots. Kunta tries again to escape, but a pair of slave-catchers seize him, bind him, Kunta meets Bell, the cook for Williams family. Bell successfully treats both Kuntas mangled foot and his wounded spirit, by 1780 he eventually submits to the harsh life, and he marries Bell in a ceremony, which includes jumping across a broom. Bell bears a daughter, to whom Kunta gives the name Kizzy, Fiddler continues to mentor and befriend Kunta, and Fiddler eventually dies at an old age in 1790. An adulterous relationship between Dr. William Reynolds and John Reynoldss wife produces a daughter, Anne, whom John apparently believes to be his own offspring. Missy Anne and Kizzy, about two younger than Anne, become playmates and best friends within the social limits of the plantation culture

30.
TV Guide
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In 1948, he printed New York City area listings magazine The TeleVision Guide. Silent film star Gloria Swanson, who then starred of the variety series The Gloria Swanson Hour. Wagner later began publishing regional editions of The TeleVision Guide for New England, five years later, he sold the editions to Walter Annenberg, who folded it into his publishing and broadcasting company Triangle Publications, but remained as a consultant for the magazine until 1963. The national TV Guides first issue was released on April 3,1953. The inaugural cover featured a photograph of Lucille Balls newborn son Desi Arnaz, Jr. with a photo of Ball placed in the top corner under the issues headline. The magazine was published in digest size, which remained its printed format for 52 years. The launch as a magazine with local listings in April 1953 became an almost instant success, with TV Guide becoming the most read. The initial cost of issue was 15¢ per copy. In addition to subscriptions, TV Guide was sold at the counters of grocery stores nationwide. Until the 1980s, the pieces included in each issue were promoted in a television commercial. Over the decades, the shape of the TV Guide logo has changed to reflect the modernization of the television screen, at first, the logo had various colored backgrounds until the familiar red background became the standard in the 1960s with occasional changes used for special editions. The magazine was first based in an office in downtown Philadelphia, before moving to more spacious national headquarters in Radnor. The color section was sent to regional printers to be wrapped around the local listing sections. It was under Triangles ownership of WFIL-TV that Dick Clark and American Bandstand came to popularity, most listing entries in the log included program genres after the programs title, while its running time was listed in the synopses. Originally, the majority of programs listed in the log each issue featured brief synopses, except for local and national newscasts, in addition, black-and-white ads for programs scheduled to air on broadcast stations – and later, cable channels – during prime time were included within the listings. A regular feature of the section was Close-Up, which provided expanded reviews of select programs airing each day. The advent of television would become hard on TV Guide. Channels that were listed also differed, depending on the edition, as the years went on, more cable channels were added into the listings of each edition

31.
Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries)
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It stars Robert Powell as Jesus. Extra-biblical traditions were used in the writing of the screenplay and some characters, notably, Jesus of Nazareth depicts Judas Iscariot as a well-intentioned man initially, but later as a dupe of Zerah who betrays Jesus largely as a result of Zerahs false platitudes and pretexts. However, in accordance with the Gospels, the film depicts Nicodemus, Jesus of Nazareth premiered on the Italian channel Rai 1 on 27 March 1977 and was first aired in the United Kingdom on the ITV Network on 3 April 1977. It is generally well-praised, but was not received without controversy, the storyline of Jesus of Nazareth is a kind of cinematic Diatessaron, or Gospel harmony, blending the narratives of all four New Testament accounts. It takes a fairly naturalistic approach, de-emphasising special effects when miracles are depicted and presenting Jesus as more or less evenly divine, the film’s storyline concludes with the non-Biblical character Zerah and his colleagues gazing despairingly into the empty tomb. At the end of the interview, the Pope told him he hoped his next project would be about the life of Jesus, two weeks later, while dining with an RAI executive, Grade told him he intended their companies to prepare such a film. The director rejected the proposal at first, but Grade finally convinced him to agree, the project struck some as blasphemous, others as ecumenical. Fired by this announcement, the Romans laid on a great, as it were, First Supper, sir Lew Grade was made a Cavaliere of the Republic. Both Grade and Zeffirelli insisted their adaptation of Jesuss life should be ecumenical, coherent, even to non-believers, to ensure the films accuracy, the producers consulted experts from the Vatican, the Leo Baeck Rabbinical College of London, and the Koranic School at Meknes, Morocco. However, when Zeffirelli asked Rabbi Albert Friedlander to help him create Jesuss Bar Mitzvah scene, principal photography was carried out in Morocco and Tunisia from September 1975 to May 1976. The synagogue scenes were shot with extras from the Jewish community in the island of Djerba, the city of Monastir served as 1st Century Jerusalem. Ernest Borgnine, who portrayed Cornelius the Centurion, recalled that since regulations required hiring local extras—most with poor English—for many of the smaller roles, they had to be dubbed. Zeffirelli decided to avoid recording sound altogether in many parts, the standing sets of the film were later used by the British comedy troupe Monty Python for their religious satire Life of Brian. Other sources give the sum of $18 million, in his autobiography, Lew Grade wrote that in the final accounting, Jesus of Nazareth took $45 million. The producers at first considered choosing a well-known star, who would draw a large audience, the first actor thought of was Dustin Hoffman, and Al Pacino was also a candidate. However, the filmmakers feared that their looks would not match the popular perception of Jesus held by the American public, the Virgin Mary, too, was depicted without regard to historical or ethnographic accuracy by the definitely Caucasian Olivia Hussey. Powell came under criticism from religious groups for living in sin with his companion. The couple married shortly before production began, Powell almost never blinks throughout the entire film, he mimics H. B

32.
North and South (miniseries)
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North and South is the title of three American television miniseries broadcast on the ABC network in 1985,1986, and 1994. Set before, during, and immediately after the American Civil War, the 1985 first installment, North and South, remains the seventh-highest rated miniseries in TV history. North and South, Book II was met with success, while 1994s Heaven and Hell. All of these actors returned for the 1986 sequel, joined by Parker Stevenson as Billy Hazard, Georges brother, John Jakes wife Rachel also made an appearance in Episode 6 as Lincolns wife Mary. 1994s Heaven and Hell featured Peter OToole as louche actor Sam Trump, filming of the miniseries resulted in four marriages among the cast and crew. Read and Kilbourne, who played each other, married in 1988. Frakes and Francis, who had played opposite each other on the failed NBC soap Bare Essence. Lesley-Anne Down married assistant cameraman Don E. FauntLeRoy in 1986 and they met during filming of Book I when both were married to other people, and eventually obtained divorces. Garber married screenwriter Chris Hager, whom she met in 1985 when he worked as a grip on the set of North and South and they had a daughter, Molly, in 1986, and later divorced. North and South was directed by Richard T. Heffron, from an adaptation by Patricia Green, Douglas Heyes, Paul F. Edwards. It was produced by David L. Wolper, Paul Freeman, Rob Harland, Wolper also produced 1986s North and South, Book II with his son Mark Wolper, as well as Stephanie Austin and Robert Papazian. Conti returned as composer, with Kevin Connor directing, Jacques R. Marquette as cinematographer, Heaven and Hell, North and South Book III was directed by Larry Peerce from a script by Suzanne Clauser. Hal Galli produced the miniseries, with music by David Bell, Episode 1 - Young Southerner Orry Main, the firstborn son of a wealthy South Carolina plantation owner, decides to go to West Point. On his way to the station, he rescues and falls in love with the beautiful French-Creole southern belle from New Orleans. In New York City, Orry meets Northerner George Hazard, the son of a wealthy Pennsylvania steel-factory owner. At the Academy, they meet the amoral egomaniac Elkanah Bent and they also meet classmates George Pickett, George McClellan, Thomas Stonewall Jackson and a senior student named Ulysses Grant. Bent is a handsome, smooth-talking man who hides his evil, twisted nature beneath his charm and he takes an instant dislike to Orry and George and uses his status as their drillmaster to constantly harass them. Orry constantly writes letters to Madeline, although it seems that she has not been responding to him, after two years of training, the men return home for a summer leave

33.
North and South (trilogy)
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North and South is a 1980s trilogy of best-selling novels by John Jakes which take place before, during, and after the American Civil War. The first novel, North and South, was published in 1982, the trilogy was completed with Heaven and Hell in 1987. All three novels debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list, with North and South reaching #1 within four weeks on February 28,1982, all three novels were also ranked within the top ten hardcover fiction bestsellers for their respective years by Publishers Weekly. As of 2007, ten copies of the trilogy remain in print. The novels were adapted into television miniseries starring Patrick Swayze and James Read in 1985,1986. The first installment, 1985s North and South, remains the seventh-highest rated miniseries in TV history, over the next two decades the men fight in the Mexican–American War, suffer various family conflicts, and witness the increasing discord between the North and South regions of the United States. Orry Main from South Carolina and George Hazard from Pennsylvania meet on their way to the U. S and they soon become close friends, frequently confronting their regional differences within the frame of their friendship. During their time at the academy, Orry and George are tormented by a sadistic Ohioan cadet named Elkanah Bent, the companions graduate and become officers in the U. S. Army during the Mexican–American War. On the way to Mexico, George courts a young Irish woman in Texas named Constance, George and Orry end up in the Battle of Churubusco, where Orrys arm is badly wounded and eventually amputated. He is sent home, but George stays, George is later released from the Army due to his fathers death, and he and Constance return to Pennsylvania and marry. George and Orry eventually meet up again and resume their friendship, soon, Orrys younger sister Brett falls in love with Georges younger brother Billy. Later, Billy is a classmate of Orrys cousin Charles at West Point. In 1858, as Orry is planning a trip to Pennsylvania, Brett begs him to take her with him so they can continue to St. Louis, where Billy is stationed with the Corps of Engineers. On the train back to South Carolina, the train is stopped by raiders under the command of the radical abolitionist John Brown, in the town of Harpers Ferry, Brett and Orry are sent on their way to South Carolina unharmed. Two years after the Mains and Hazards rendezvous in Pennsylvania, Billy joins the U. S. Army as the American Civil War draws near. Stationed only a few miles away from the Mains plantation, in Major Robert Andersons garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Billy is given leave, a few nights later, Confederate forces under the command of Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard open fire on Fort Sumter, setting off the Civil War, Orry and George say their final goodbye before the war, hoping for the best for each other. North and South debuted at #12 on The New York Times Best Seller list and it was later ranked the #8 hardcover fiction bestseller of 1982 by Publishers Weekly

34.
John Jakes
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John William Jakes is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction. He has used the pen name Jay Scotland, Jakes was born in Chicago, Illinois. He first sold stories to magazines while still in college in the early 1950s. He studied creative writing at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana and he then earned an M. A. in American literature from The Ohio State University. ISFDB catalogs 28 more speculative fiction stories published 1951 to 1953, in 1971, he began to write full-time. During this time, he was a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers Guild of America, the eight original members were self-selected by fantasy credentials alone. They sought to promote the popularity and respectability of the Sword, Jakes lives in Florida with his wife, Rachel, to whom he has been married since 1951. They have four children, Andrea, Ellen, J. Michael. It was followed by The Rebels and The Seekers, the North and South trilogy was made into three miniseries on ABC in the 1980s and 1990s. List of bestselling novels in the United States John Jakes at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database FantasticFiction — bibliography and book covers Authors website — biography

35.
War and Remembrance (miniseries)
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War and Remembrance is an American miniseries based on the novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk, which aired from November 13,1988 to May 14,1989. It is the sequel to The Winds of War, which was based on one of Wouks novels. The television mini-series continues the story of the extended Henry family, bailey as Commander Jim Grigg R. G. Foof Turhall War and Remembrance had a multi-year production timeline. Miniseries had been major events on American television, reserved for important stories like Jesus of Nazareth and The Rise, up to that point, television had been dominated by the Big Three broadcasting networks in the United States, ABC, NBC and CBS. Shortly after, cable television began the fragmentation of the United States broadcasting audience in earnest, leaving War, because Herman Wouk was happy with Dan Curtiss adaptation of The Winds of War, he allowed Curtis to adapt the sequel as well. Paramount Television, the studio behind The Winds of War, decided not to produce the sequel and sold the rights to ABC, which had only aired the original series. ABC first planned a $65 million, 20-hour series, but when they went to Curtis, he said he wanted to make a million, 30-hour series. There were also restrictions on advertising, Herman Wouk had approval over all ads and refused to allow any advertising for personal care products, foods. Two major eventual sponsors were Ford Motors and Nike, in addition, Wouk required that certain Holocaust sequences run uninterrupted by commercials of any kind. The series was called off in 1985, just as it was nearing the completion of $16 million in preproduction. Several actors were changed between The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, actor John Houseman played Aaron Jastrow in Winds of War, but was too frail for War and Remembrances lengthy production schedule. He died of cancer in 1988, the year War. He was replaced by John Gielgud, Jane Seymour was cast as Mrs. Natalie Henry in place of Ali MacGraw after Seymour campaigned for the role and made a screen test. Dan Curtis was struck by her performance and immediately cast her in the vital role, because the miniseries was shot out of sequence, producers could not cut Jane Seymours hair for the scenes in the concentration camp. Make-up artists took shears to a full scalp wig for her to wear for those scenes instead, the actor Jan-Michael Vincent, who played Byron Henry in the Winds of War, was busy in the American television series Airwolf as an action lead. It is hinted in the featurette on the Winds of War DVDs that Vincents drinking made him difficult on set and he was replaced by Hart Bochner. William Woodson again serves as narrator and his request was aided by the intercession of the Polish state TV network, and the support of Polands preeminent World War II expert, who approved the script. Curtis said that he was allowed to film at Auschwitz on condition that the script not have one word about Polish anti-Semitism during the war, filming on the miniseries began with production at Auschwitz from January to May 1986

36.
Prime Suspect
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Prime Suspect is a British police procedural television drama series. The series focuses on a no-nonsense female Detective Chief Inspector, Jane Tennison, in later series, Tennison is reassigned to rotating duties, including a Vice Squad in Soho, and a Gang squad in Manchester. She is promoted to Detective Superintendent shortly thereafter, the first series features sexism in the workplace as a significant subplot and a barrier to the investigation. Tennisons difficulty in achieving a balance between her work and her life outside the job and her difficulty in maintaining stable relationships are a theme within the series. Toward the end of Prime Suspect 3 she arranges to have her pregnancy terminated and it is set mostly in London and the outer areas, with series 5 being set in Manchester. Prime Suspects format is multiple episodes, each number represents a case, which runs around 3½ hours, usually aired in two parts or four parts. Prime Suspect 4 was an exception at slightly over 5 hours with three separate cases, the first five series were produced at a steady pace of one roughly every eighteen months until Mirren left the role, supposedly to avoid typecasting. She returned to the character after a seven-year gap, Prime Suspect was produced by Granada Television for the ITV network between 7 April 1991 and 22 October 2006. Prime Suspect 4 through 7 were co-produced by WGBH Boston for its Masterpiece Mystery anthology series, the music score for the first five series was done by Academy Award-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, who was nominated for a BAFTA for Prime Suspect series one. The following year, Allan Cubitts teleplay for Prime Suspect 2 brought the series a second Edgar, Prime Suspect 3 was awarded a Peabody Award in 1993 for its realistic scenes and dialogue. The series garnered multiple BAFTA Awards, Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, a Detective Chief Inspector, and later a Detective Superintendent. Tennison is the series protagonist, and the audience follow her career as she investigates cases in both London and Manchester and she is a skilled Detective, battling to prove herself in the male-dominated world of policing. Mirren described Tennison as extremely directed, ambitious, talented and very uncompromising, she is, as a result, after a fruitful career as a Senior Investigating Officer, Tennison retires from policing at the series end. The actors listed below are those who appeared in two or more cases and this list is not definitive, and as such, single-case appearances are not noted. In summer of 2015, ITV announced plans for a prequel, Prime Suspect 1973. The series is based on the book Tennison by Lynda La Plante and has adapted by Glen Laker. It tells the story of a 22 year old Jane Tennison as a young WPC officer investigating her first murder case, the series began airing on March 2,2017. The role of Tennison is played by Stefanie Martini, in interviews, Sedgwick has acknowledged that the show owes a debt to the British crime drama, and that her admiration for that show and for Mirren were factors that first interested her in the role

37.
From the Earth to the Moon (miniseries)
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The series takes its title from, but is not based upon, the famous Jules Verne science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon. Hanks appears in episode, introducing each of the first eleven. The last episode is represented in a pseudo-documentary format narrated by Blythe Danner, hanks narrates and appears in these scenes as Méliès assistant. The miniseries has a large cast, driven in part by the fact that it portrays 30 of the 32 astronauts who flew, or were preparing to fly. Members of many of the families, and other NASA and non-NASA personnel, are also portrayed. Several fictional characters are included, notably television newscaster Emmett Seaborn who appears in nine of the twelve episodes. The twelve episodes, each directed by different individuals, use a variety of viewpoints and themes, while covering the Mercury, Gemini. Lane Smith portrays Emmett Seaborn, a reporter for a fictional television network. The miniseries, concentrating on the Apollo space program, was produced with an intent not to other dramatic portrayals of events of the space race. Project Mercury, which was portrayed in the film The Right Stuff, was summarized in the first episode. Many of the actors had opportunity to interact and form friendships with the real life astronauts they were portraying. Brett Cullen, who played Apollo 9 Command Module pilot and Apollo 15 commander David Scott, was invited to the Scott family home each time an episode he appeared in was first televised. Two short clips from the scenes of Apollo 13 were used in Thats All There Is, a splashdown sequence. The original series was shot in 1.33,1 aspect ratio, the series was released on DVD as a 4-disc set. With the proliferation of widescreen flat-panel TV sets the series was remastered in 1.78,1 aspect ratio, new framing causes loss of top and bottom parts of the frames from the original movie. This is not always noticeable because of careful transfer process, some captions have also been compromised. Parts of the mini-series were filmed at the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, scenes of the moonwalks were shot inside the blimp hangars on the former Marine base in Tustin, California. Approximately half the area inside was converted to the Moons surface, the episode also featured a real Apollo Lunar Module, which had been built for the Apollo 18 mission but was never used due to budget cuts

38.
Apollo program
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Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve men walked on the Moon, Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first manned flight in 1968. It achieved its goal of manned lunar landing, despite the setback of a 1967 Apollo 1 cabin fire that killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. After the first landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration, Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. The crew returned to Earth safely by using the Lunar Module as a lifeboat for these functions, Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending manned missions beyond low Earth orbit, Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, while the final Apollo 17 mission marked the sixth Moon landing and the ninth manned mission beyond low Earth orbit. The program returned 842 pounds of rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moons composition. The program laid the foundation for NASAs subsequent human spaceflight capability, Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and manned spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers. The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration in early 1960, while the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, Apollo would carry three astronauts. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a station, circumlunar flights. The program was named after the Greek god of light, music, and the sun by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said that I was naming the spacecraft like Id name my baby. Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, in July 1960, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden announced the Apollo program to industry representatives at a series of Space Task Group conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft with a mission module cabin separate from the module. On August 30, a feasibility study competition was announced, and on October 25, meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies led by Maxime Faget, to serve as a gauge to judge and monitor the three industry designs. In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign that promised American superiority over the Soviet Union in the fields of space exploration and missile defense. Beyond military power, Kennedy used aerospace technology as a symbol of prestige, pledging to make the US not first but, first and, first if. Despite Kennedys rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president and he knew little about the technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a manned Moon landing. On April 12,1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on Americas response to the Soviets

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Moon
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The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth, being Earths only permanent natural satellite. It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, following Jupiters satellite Io, the Moon is second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known. The average distance of the Moon from the Earth is 384,400 km, the Moon is thought to have formed about 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earths sky, after the Sun and its surface is actually dark, although compared to the night sky it appears very bright, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its cycle of phases have made the Moon an important cultural influence since ancient times on language, calendars, art. The Moons gravitational influence produces the ocean tides, body tides, and this matching of apparent visual size will not continue in the far future. The Moons linear distance from Earth is currently increasing at a rate of 3.82 ±0.07 centimetres per year, since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the Moon has been visited only by uncrewed spacecraft. The usual English proper name for Earths natural satellite is the Moon, the noun moon is derived from moone, which developed from mone, which is derived from Old English mōna, which ultimately stems from Proto-Germanic *mǣnōn, like all Germanic language cognates. Occasionally, the name Luna is used, in literature, especially science fiction, Luna is used to distinguish it from other moons, while in poetry, the name has been used to denote personification of our moon. The principal modern English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, a less common adjective is selenic, derived from the Ancient Greek Selene, from which is derived the prefix seleno-. Both the Greek Selene and the Roman goddess Diana were alternatively called Cynthia, the names Luna, Cynthia, and Selene are reflected in terminology for lunar orbits in words such as apolune, pericynthion, and selenocentric. The name Diana is connected to dies meaning day, several mechanisms have been proposed for the Moons formation 4.51 billion years ago, and some 60 million years after the origin of the Solar System. These hypotheses also cannot account for the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. This hypothesis, although not perfect, perhaps best explains the evidence, eighteen months prior to an October 1984 conference on lunar origins, Bill Hartmann, Roger Phillips, and Jeff Taylor challenged fellow lunar scientists, You have eighteen months. Go back to your Apollo data, go back to computer, do whatever you have to. Dont come to our conference unless you have something to say about the Moons birth, at the 1984 conference at Kona, Hawaii, the giant impact hypothesis emerged as the most popular. Afterward there were only two groups, the giant impact camp and the agnostics. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System, computer simulations of a giant impact have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the present angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system

In a letter to Cassandra dated May 1813, Jane Austen describes a picture she saw at a gallery which was a good likeness of "Mrs. Bingley" – Jane Bennet. Deirdre Le Faye in The World of Her Novels suggests that "Portrait of Mrs. Q-" is the picture Austen was referring to. (pp. 201–203)

Leah Thys, actress in the Belgian soap Thuis. At the back Peter Rouffaer is visible.

A scene from EastEnders on Christmas Day 1986, watched by 30.15 million viewers. The story, in which Den Watts served his wife Angie with divorce papers, was the highest-rated soap episode in British history, and the highest-rated program in the UK during the 1980s.